Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Making felt

Just a very quick little 'teaser' update - I'm going to try my hand at making felt. I'm doing it a cheaty way I think but someone at work mentioned it to me and I'm intrigued. Get an old 100% wool jumper that's handwash only and stick in your washing machine at 60 degrees with a regular load and it turns into felt! Apparently there's a reason for this* but it sounds great. I want another of these flowers for a plain dress I have so think this could be the answer. This one I didn't make - it came from Cadiz!
*Found here: "Very simply, felt is matted wool. Wool becomes felt when it is subjected to moisture, heat, and pressure. (In fact, if domestic sheep were not shorn, over time their wool would felt or "cot".) Hot soapy water makes the wool slippery, and causes tiny scales on the fiber to "open up". The scales prevent the fibers from backing up again after they slide across each other; with agitation, the fibers get hopelessly tangled together. When cooled and dried, the scales close and lock the wool into the tough, durable material we call felt."
at

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2 July 2010 at 19:24

    But do you have an old wool sweater that you can boil to death? I'd be very interested to see what you come up with, felting has always fascinated me but I've not yet taken the plunge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ruthdigs6 July 2010 at 12:40

    I have indeed. Need to scope out the charity shops for some brighter colours though.

    ReplyDelete

I love my comments!!!!
Thank you for reading. I read all my comments and am trying to get better at replying to them too. :-)
Lovely to have you pass by. Be shiny. :-D